Stephanie H. Cook New York University, USA
Dr. Stephanie H. Cook is an assistant professor in the Department of Biostatistics and the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at New York University’s College of Global Public Health. She aims to understand the pathways and mechanisms linking attachment, minority stress, and health among disadvantaged individuals. More broadly, she examines how the inter- and intra-personal features of close relationships influence the health of racial/ethnic and sexual minorities. Through her development of an integrated theory of adult attachment (i.e., the development, or lack, of strong socio-emotional bonds) and minority stress (i.e., social stress experienced by individuals in minority social groups), she seeks to better understand the poor health and HIV prevention needs of disadvantaged youth transitioning into adulthood. She then utilizes this theoretical framework of attachment and minority stress to inform effective prevention programs for vulnerable racial/ethnic and sexual minority youth. As the principal investigator and director of the Attachment and Health Disparities Research Lab, her team assesses the association of attachment-related functioning on health disparities among racial/ethnic and sexual minority youth. She is first exploring how adult attachment orientation is associated with HIV risk in a community sample of Black gay and bisexual men transitioning into adulthood. Second, she illustrates how transitions in attachment during adolescence are associated with trajectories of depression among a community-based cohort sample of African American youth. Third, she seeks to understand how adult attachment, in the context of minority stress, is associated with biomarkers of physical health.
